ESP Owners Club-Show Us Your ESPs!

[NCASO96]

^^^ my brand new RDB Eclipse! The EMGs sound awesome in this guitar... They just work! There's a 60 in the neck and it
really sounds great. very happy... but i still miss and regret selling this one...

you can't have it all

 

[AkiraSpectrum]

View attachment 103559

beauty!

 

[narad]

A lot of ESP diversity in the house:

 

[narad]

btw, as I see lots of talk about ESP CS being flawless etc, you can see where they botched up the masking on the side of this binding, resulting in a different distance between the bottom of the side dots and the black line as it goes down the neck:

Obviously I like ESP a lot, but I do see these things time to time on all sorts of highest-end ESPs.

 

[Nightside]

btw, as I see lots of talk about ESP CS being flawless etc, you can see where they botched up the masking on the side of this binding, resulting in a different distance between the bottom of the side dots and the black line as it goes down the neck:

Obviously I like ESP a lot, but I do see these things time to time on all sorts of highest-end ESPs.

JFC man I would send that shit back. Like BRJ and his drunk ass side dots. Look how the black paint overlaps part of the binding where the natural neck finish ends. That shit should have never made it past QC. Those frets and fretboard are really grungy for an ESP CS too. Even my standard series guitars had frets AND fretboard with a smooth and shiny gloss from being so well polished. Quality has really taken a nose dive I guess. They should spend less time on all those pointless exhibition guitars and focus on making their customer guitars as good as they used to be.

 

[narad]

JFC man I would send that shit back. Like BRJ and his drunk ass side dots. Look how the black paint overlaps part of the binding where the natural neck finish ends. That shit should have never made it past QC. Those frets and fretboard are really grungy for an ESP CS too. Even my standard series guitars had frets AND fretboard with a smooth and shiny gloss from being so well polished. Quality has really taken a nose dive I guess. They should spend less time on all those pointless exhibition guitars and focus on making their customer guitars as good as they used to be.

The frets are grungy on account of it being just bought used from a random guy. But the paintwork is obviously how it was from factory.

I don't mind this sort of stuff these days and I'm probably taking it to ESP tomorrow to drop it off for a refinish, but I just get a bit annoyed by the fawning (which admittedly is mostly on the ESP FB groups and not here).

 

[Nightside]

This thing was fucking flawless. I want to kill myself every time I remember it.

My only nitpick with this guitar (I didn't custom order it, it was ordered by DCGL) was the inlays. Either go full skulls or none at all.

 

[Darkscience]

I agree they should spend more time on the customer guitars if they are putting that out from the custom shop. (Those frets and board though seriously?) I guess they can't be trusted either, Thanks for sharing.

 

[Nightside]

A lot of ESP diversity in the house:

I need this.

 

[narad]

I need this.

Similar!

 

[marke]

The frets are grungy on account of it being just bought used from a random guy. But the paintwork is obviously how it was from factory.

I don't mind this sort of stuff these days and I'm probably taking it to ESP tomorrow to drop it off for a refinish, but I just get a bit annoyed by the fawning (which admittedly is mostly on the ESP FB groups and not here).

Thanks for saying this out loud. I like ESP a lot as well, but I have missed these "flawless" guitars. Some individual ones might be, or maybe the owners simply do not notice. Flawless, however, is a bit strong word. My Takada shop, for example, is insanely good, but also not flawless. It's a guitar and guitars are rarely perfect if you just look close enough.

 

[xzyryabx]

Dunno, the vast majority of my custom shops have been near, if not completely, flawless. They are all made this century though, so to.me.it seems the common issues from the older models seem to have been ironed out more or less. Of course, these are hand made instruments and even the best luthiers and QC dudes fuck up every once in a while.

 

[narad]

Dunno, the vast majority of my custom shops have been near, if not completely, flawless. They are all made this century though, so to.me.it seems the common issues from the older models seem to have been ironed out more or less. Of course, these are hand made instruments and even the best luthiers and QC dudes fuck up every once in a while.

The one I showed the pic of above is an 07. And my fav ones are not from this century

Again, not ragging on ESP. Just some objective evidence to not exalt them to some superhuman level.

 

[Nightside]

Mine was built in 2005 and was flawless. And I did take it apart several times. I was really impressed with how clean the nut shelf was. Like the edges of the wood and finish were just so slightly rounded over so as not to catch on anything or to reduce the chance of getting chipped around the nut. The demarcation line between the gloss body finish and satin neck finish was undetectable. My cousin brought his Edwards black sawtooth for comparison because it is also a gloss black body with natural satin neck. You could feel the line in the paint where the transition was. I took mine completely apart down to the wood and it was amazing attention to details throughout. The tremolo recess was not flat bottomed but angled up to where the posts were. This was my first ever custom shop level guitar that I bought after I was playing for almost ten years and drooling over high end guitars. I went over every part of it.

I also paid $1900USD for it.

 

[MFB]

my ESP/LTD PB-500

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FL1pBQwXsAAcc7M?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FL1pTH6XsAgi-_6?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

Honestly, before I found my MT Pro, I was considering a goldtop PB; it was close to getting the trigger pulled, but as much as I liked the simplicity, I wanted something a little meaner.

 

[yan12]

Not starting a war but IMHO, there is a very loose definition of "custom" in the guitar world. I consider 99% of "custom" guitars production guitars with individual specs like paint, fret size, blah blah blah.

Too many people are hung up on that word, CUSTOM. There are just so many variations of the same theme...most of these guitars I would classify as "semi-custom".

I say if you have a guitar that is the only ONE in the world in regard to specifications, that is really a custom. Not a prototype, but a complete one- of- a- kind guitar is what defines custom to me, and it will have specs that were ordered by an individual to fit very specific needs. My Schecter NAMM swirl is the only one in the world, swirled by Ron Thorn when he was doing the Universe swirls...and it is the first Schecter sunset with 24 frets and radiused body. But it is not custom and is a production model. It happens to be the first one and has the only paint job like it, but it is not a custom guitar. But it is by all means a BEAST of a guitar.
-
All these folks playing an INSERT A FAVORITE PLAYER HERE (ie. Lynch, Hammett, Vai, Satch, Govan, etc) are buying guitars that have been built a million times over. Requesting a LYNCH guitar with different paint or pickups is not custom, they build them all the time. That guitar above from Kiso with a bad tape line is a production guitar. Expensive rarely defines custom.

I have said this a million times. Custom guitars are rarely worth the price for most people because they should be able to find a guitar that checks all the boxes very easily given the choices by top builders. ESP, Suhr, Schecter, TA, all the European companies, etc. have such a wide array of options for their production lines it is staggering. Custom guitars do not hold their value like a high- end production guitar does.

Concerning ESP alone, even their NAMM pieces with crazy hardware and tops that cost $20k are not really custom. All those models have serial #'s ending in a '2' which means production model. It may be the only one in the world with that finish, but it has been built before. It may come from the Japanese custom shop and be assembled by the best of the best, but it is blueprinted already. Guitars like the Shinobi, that is a custom guitar to me in the ESP realm.

Take it with a grain of salt, but when folks say things like "that is outrageous for QC to miss something on a custom shop guitar" I am not really sure they understand custom. Everyone agrees that at any level, mistakes happen. Nobody should think; Custom shop guitar = Expensive and Flawless because 9 times out of 10 they are production guitars with a little tweaking.

In my travels of the custom shop experience, 99% of the time, the real customs I own, have owned, or played have been damn near flawless, especially ESP or Schecter. I am turning 51, worked my ass off to afford what I want, and in the end I think you can buy a guitar in the 2-3K range that is all you could ever want or more. No need to go 100% custom unless you really know what you want down to the mm. And when you do go there and pay the price, then you can demand 100% perfection. Otherwise you get a crooked tape line now and again.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Not starting a war but IMHO, there is a very loose definition of "custom" in the guitar world. I consider 99% of "custom" guitars production guitars with individual specs like paint, fret size, blah blah blah.

Too many people are hung up on that word, CUSTOM. There are just so many variations of the same theme...most of these guitars I would classify as "semi-custom".

I say if you have a guitar that is the only ONE in the world in regard to specifications, that is really a custom. Not a prototype, but a complete one- of- a- kind guitar is what defines custom to me, and it will have specs that were ordered by an individual to fit very specific needs. My Schecter NAMM swirl is the only one in the world, swirled by Ron Thorn when he was doing the Universe swirls...and it is the first Schecter sunset with 24 frets and radiused body. But it is not custom and is a production model. It happens to be the first one and has the only paint job like it, but it is not a custom guitar. But it is by all means a BEAST of a guitar.
-
All these folks playing an INSERT A FAVORITE PLAYER HERE (ie. Lynch, Hammett, Vai, Satch, Govan, etc) are buying guitars that have been built a million times over. Requesting a LYNCH guitar with different paint or pickups is not custom, they build them all the time. That guitar above from Kiso with a bad tape line is a production guitar. Expensive rarely defines custom.

I have said this a million times. Custom guitars are rarely worth the price for most people because they should be able to find a guitar that checks all the boxes very easily given the choices by top builders. ESP, Suhr, Schecter, TA, all the European companies, etc. have such a wide array of options for their production lines it is staggering. Custom guitars do not hold their value like a high- end production guitar does.

Concerning ESP alone, even their NAMM pieces with crazy hardware and tops that cost $20k are not really custom. All those models have serial #'s ending in a '2' which means production model. It may be the only one in the world with that finish, but it has been built before. It may come from the Japanese custom shop and be assembled by the best of the best, but it is blueprinted already. Guitars like the Shinobi, that is a custom guitar to me in the ESP realm.

Take it with a grain of salt, but when folks say things like "that is outrageous for QC to miss something on a custom shop guitar" I am not really sure they understand custom. Everyone agrees that at any level, mistakes happen. Nobody should think; Custom shop guitar = Expensive and Flawless because 9 times out of 10 they are production guitars with a little tweaking.

In my travels of the custom shop experience, 99% of the time, the real customs I own, have owned, or played have been damn near flawless, especially ESP or Schecter. I am turning 51, worked my ass off to afford what I want, and in the end I think you can buy a guitar in the 2-3K range that is all you could ever want or more. No need to go 100% custom unless you really know what you want down to the mm. And when you do go there and pay the price, then you can demand 100% perfection. Otherwise you get a crooked tape line now and again.

The term "custom" literally just means "made or done to order for a customer" and this stuff is just pointless gatekeeping. If you need to do this to rationalize how special your guitars are compared to everyone elses' the problem lies within.

EDIT: You were kind enough to explain your point, I owe you the same. I really don't mean to call you out personally.

I think you're right, folks tend to put a lot of weight in the "custom" moniker, but I think it's a two way street. In my three decades of professional tech work, some of the absolute worst guitars I've worked on have been what you feel describes "custom".

You have to extend context, especially for the brand.

 

[narad]

Not starting a war but IMHO, there is a very loose definition of "custom" in the guitar world. I consider 99% of "custom" guitars production guitars with individual specs like paint, fret size, blah blah blah.

Too many people are hung up on that word, CUSTOM. There are just so many variations of the same theme...most of these guitars I would classify as "semi-custom".

I say if you have a guitar that is the only ONE in the world in regard to specifications, that is really a custom. Not a prototype, but a complete one- of- a- kind guitar is what defines custom to me, and it will have specs that were ordered by an individual to fit very specific needs. My Schecter NAMM swirl is the only one in the world, swirled by Ron Thorn when he was doing the Universe swirls...and it is the first Schecter sunset with 24 frets and radiused body. But it is not custom and is a production model. It happens to be the first one and has the only paint job like it, but it is not a custom guitar. But it is by all means a BEAST of a guitar.
-
All these folks playing an INSERT A FAVORITE PLAYER HERE (ie. Lynch, Hammett, Vai, Satch, Govan, etc) are buying guitars that have been built a million times over. Requesting a LYNCH guitar with different paint or pickups is not custom, they build them all the time. That guitar above from Kiso with a bad tape line is a production guitar. Expensive rarely defines custom.

I have said this a million times. Custom guitars are rarely worth the price for most people because they should be able to find a guitar that checks all the boxes very easily given the choices by top builders. ESP, Suhr, Schecter, TA, all the European companies, etc. have such a wide array of options for their production lines it is staggering. Custom guitars do not hold their value like a high- end production guitar does.

Concerning ESP alone, even their NAMM pieces with crazy hardware and tops that cost $20k are not really custom. All those models have serial #'s ending in a '2' which means production model. It may be the only one in the world with that finish, but it has been built before. It may come from the Japanese custom shop and be assembled by the best of the best, but it is blueprinted already. Guitars like the Shinobi, that is a custom guitar to me in the ESP realm.

Take it with a grain of salt, but when folks say things like "that is outrageous for QC to miss something on a custom shop guitar" I am not really sure they understand custom. Everyone agrees that at any level, mistakes happen. Nobody should think; Custom shop guitar = Expensive and Flawless because 9 times out of 10 they are production guitars with a little tweaking.

In my travels of the custom shop experience, 99% of the time, the real customs I own, have owned, or played have been damn near flawless, especially ESP or Schecter. I am turning 51, worked my ass off to afford what I want, and in the end I think you can buy a guitar in the 2-3K range that is all you could ever want or more. No need to go 100% custom unless you really know what you want down to the mm. And when you do go there and pay the price, then you can demand 100% perfection. Otherwise you get a crooked tape line now and again.

It sounds like you're saying if you want the highest quality ESP you have to custom order a one-off thing that's not based on a production model. That's weird because (1) they are built in the same place by the same people, and (2) when I say I'm a little exhausted by blind fanboism regarding ESP quality, no one is talking about one-offs. It's the idea that if it came from the custom shop it's going to be flawless guaranteed.

 

[Flappydoodle]

I bought two brand new ESP Originals in 2021 and they were as close to flawless as I am capable of detecting. I didn’t take them apart to check the insides, but the frets, binding, paintwork, inlays, side dots were good enough I couldn’t find anything wrong. Even the macro mode on the new iPhone can’t really see anything wrong with the frets.

It would be foolish to say that any man made object involving natural materials would be flawless every single time. But I do think it’s fair to say that they are consistent enough that if you buy a new ESP Original or custom shop the quality will be excellent. If Narad’s slightly wonky paintwork is the worst offence they’ve committed, I think we are ok

After all, are we even trying to buy flawless guitars? If you play it at all, it won’t be flawless for long. I don’t buy museum pieces. I buy ESP because they look good, sound good and play great. The consistent quality, reliability etc is important of course, but mostly it’s because I like owning nice things. If you just want a good tone, get LTD or Schecter with a good setup and a nice pickup.

 

[yan12]

I don't care if anyone calls me out, I don't think anyone should ever take things personally, especially on the web. No offense taken by me.

Standing toe to toe and throwing insults is the same to me, It just does not bug me at all. I take no offense to anyone, any time, disagreeing with me or what I say.

That's rule one of doing anything in public. Be prepared for dissenting views, and if you can't handle it or overreact, don't lay it out there.


To clarify, the word custom is way over used in the guitar world, and it gets my goat that players pay up for that word when they don't need to. I clearly state that most of the time, the player is far better served in terms of playability, resale, wait time, and result, using a good to great production line guitar. I discourage people when I am asked about going 100% full custom. Custom does not = perfection, but hopefully gets the end user closer to what they really need as an artist.

But after a long run of studio work, working on guitars and amps, just being around and in the business (which I still am), I am burned out on "custom".

One of a kind custom dimensions on a guitar are often times a disaster...that's where trusting the right builder like ESP or Schecter makes a difference. I can't tell you how many pieces of crap I have tried to fix or make useable because some boutique builder had a revelation and sold it. And to be clear, I am not an ESP fanboy. I like quality, no doubt. I can afford it as well. The $$$ I have spent over the years has told me what I need to know, and I can only share that experience. Play whatever inspires you.

When folks say they have a custom guitar, my question is "what is custom about it?" Oh it is purple and has big frets. Okay, you got me. Nice custom. I know that dovetails into the common definition of the word in a dictionary sense, but I feel it is incorrect and too generic. Perhaps I should use bespoke more often.

I am far more interested if someone tells me, "the neck has a reverse taper, different sized frets that change along the neck, a tenon joint that goes to the bridge, and a pivot groove." I may not like any of that, but I am curious as to why that player wants or needs an instrument that is really customized for what they do. I think it is fantastic when an artist pursues their dream to the extent of using highly unique tools.

The point is I am burned out on the hype, the expense, and what I consider the overt abuse of the word. And I am really tired of folks whining about some tiny imperfection that is usually cosmetic on some expensive "custom" guitar. As if that little thing that few folks will ever see keep them from progressing as a musician. Just STFU and learn to play. It does suck to lay out a ton of cash, especially when it's all you got, and be disappointed with your purchase if it is defective. I get it. But also have a real -world view of what is possible, and most folks don't work with their hands, and they just don't know.

Those posts that start off with a timid, whining approach "Hey guys, should I return this custom guitar?" make me fucking puke. Grow a set and formulate your own idea instead of letting the world wide web decide for you. If you know what you want, go get it.